Back from Texas hog hunt

[DukeMaster]

[attachment=28617:attachment][attachment=28618:attachment][attachment=28619:atta
chment][attachment=28620:attachment][attachment=28621:attachment]The hunt package- Friday we check in at the office. They go over hunt and safety rules. Move into quarters for the next 3 days. 1 afternoon/evening hunt. Supper at the main office.
Saturday- We get 1 morning and 1 evening hunt. Lunch and supper.
Sunday- 1 morning hunt , brunch then go home.
Note: Hog gutting and skinning included(tip) and the y have a massive walk-in cooler. Not a fenced hunt. They only hunt the hogs once a month on this ranch.

Thursday I fly into Austin and my Podna's picks me up and puts me up for the night in his fifth wheel RV in the BLORA area of Fort hood. My hunt'n podna's are Retired Master sgt E7 Jim and retired CWO 5 Rod. Jeez I hang out with old folks,lol.

Friday- they take on a little tour of the base. We go to the pentagon credit union to stock up on some cash. hit the PX and Commissary for a few last minute items I forgot to pack and a few snacks. We head over to the ranch to check in and get settled into our quarters which is a 3 bedroom ranch house that has all the amenities of home. Then we hit the target range to sight in. At 3:30pm our guide Frankie picks us up and takes us to our stands. The terrain is all cactus, acacia's, rocks and heavy thickets. There are a few area's that can be hunted spot/stalk. But given the nearly impenatrable cover its best to hunt from the stands. Plus they showed us saw some magnum sized rattlers they done kilt recently. Right after dark a herd of about 25 hogs rush the feeder by my stand and after trying to pick one out in the fading light I anchor a boar of about 90 lbs. They pick me up and take me and the hog back to the main facility. I have a dinner of BBQ tri tip and all the drinks and fix'ns. The guide process the hog for me. Rod gets a hog of about 95lbs and jim gets nada. Off to bed

Saturday- 5:30 am Frankie drops me off at a different part of the ranch and I watch deer feeding at the stand and turkeys strutting all over the place. I can't believe the amount of game I'm seeing. Around 8:30am I see the first hogs or actually heard them coming. A young Sow followed by a bunch of little guys. The sow looked to be around 130lbs so I put the whack on her with my .270 and 150 gr core loks. We pick up Jim and rod and they both blanked. Back to the lodge for a siesta and lunch. Frankie comes to pick us up for the late hunt and go to a stand near the edge of the ranch and spot 4 of the biggest hogs I've seen the whole trip. I tried to put a stalk on them but with all the wind swirling about I think they winded me and hauled ass. All three of us blanked that evening. We had smoked pork chops for supper that night with green beans N bacon plus all the other fix'ns. We a lot of wildlife activity in the headlights that night driving back to the ranch house as a front was approaching.

Sunday- As I got into a stand on the far north side of the ranch the wind was starting to blow and by 9:00am it was howling and my treestand was rocking at a good clip. Only saw a bunch of deer and turkeys that morning. All three of us didn't see a hog. We pack and my guide Frankie bones the hog for to take on the plane. my podna's drop me off at my nieces house in Austin. Took my family to dinner at fish daddy's and had a nice evening with them.

Epilog- I had a wonderful time. the folks in texas are the best. My niece in Austin say's she'll never move back to california,lol. The guides and ranch staff were friendly helpful and a kick to hang out with. With my frequent flyer miles this hunt was way more affordable than ANYTHING I could here at home. The only good part about coming home was when I heard my youngest daughter hollering Daddy at the baggage claim at LAX. Rifles and stuff made it home safe and sound. We dropped off the meat at Bree's in garden grove for cutting and sausage on the way home from LAX. Will pick it up today.

Ranch View
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View from stand
Deer
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Turkey strut
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this little piggy's going to Anaheim
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[HOGHUNTER714]

DukeMaster,

Sounds like a great trip. I've always wanted to do a texas hog hunt. How much did this trip run you? Minus the airfare of course. Bree's does a great job. Enjoy the meat. Do you have anymore pics of the hogs you shot?

Bryan (HH714)

 

[DukeMaster]

5 day non-res texas license was 50 bones and the ranch charged us 350.00 for this hunt. Sorry no more pig pics. Kinda bloody and smelly in the skinning shed and I was too tired much of the time and forgot. plus I'm going back again as soon as possible.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

great story dukemaster,

and it made me very

hungry too!....................tra

 

[Speckmisser]

Great story, and great hunt! Sounds like you had a really good time.

So $350 for the hunt? That's for hogs only? Any limit on how many?

Sounds like a good deal to me. Texas is looking better and better.

 

[Lan-Lord]

Congrats on your the Texas Hog hunt.
What was the name of your outfitter? Salado is some nice country. My parents bought some land up there about 7years ago. They are planning on either retiring up there, or selling it (land value has sky rocketed in Salado) and buying something bigger elsewhere.

$350 is a pretty good (and relatively common) rate. Usually those packages cover lodging, food, and taking care of the game taken.

 

[DukeMaster]

The place is called solano Ranch and the limit is unofficially the size of your ice chest. They say the hogs breed at 6 months and are overrunning the place and are destructive at times. lastly, I made a lot of new friends from all over while there. Hunters were there from Louisiana, colorado, oregon and Georgia. I came away with a bunch of ph#s and email addy's plus an invite to hunt pheasants at a farm in eastern Oregon.

 

[larrysogla]

Congratulations......way to go!!!! God Bless.

 

[baboltin]

sounds like it was a awesome hunt...congrats. How much did your pig weigh?

 

[DukeMaster]

one pig weighed about 90 and the other 130lbs.

 

[Surfswest]

Congrats on the successful hunt!!!!

Frosty

 

[augnmike]

Dukemaster can you give me any information on the ranch, I have family in Austin and would like to explore the possibility of going there to hunt. How far is it from Austin?

 

[DukeMaster]

Hi Chief,

They are 28 miles from Austin

 

[augnmike]

Dukemaster I couldn't find a web site on Google what is their contact info.

thanks, Mike

 

[GoneHuntin]

congrats on the hog duke. that is my home country there. i live about 5 miles or so from the ranch now and own 25 acres about 3 miles or so the other side of the ranch from where i currently live. I also happen to deer/hog hunt on a place that is has solana ranch on 3 sides of us. i will say they are covered up with hogs from what they have told us and i know we have trapped a good many over the last year or so as well. they are moving out of the brush and into the farmers fields around there which is not making the farmers happy at all. Solana Ranch is about 50 miles or so from Austin. Solana Ranch is their website. I know they have alot of hogs and have been pretty good neighbors to have since the recent hunting manager has taken over there. If anyone has any questions about the area let me know as i was born and raised there.

 

[DukeMaster]

thats right. sorry mike. I got the distance from Killeen and Austin mixed up. He's right its about 50 from Austin. Gonehntn you are soooo lucky. I have never seen so many deer,turkey and other assorted critters in my life. I'm going to come back for the management doe hunt next year. Yea one thing they made clear was that nobody shoot across fences.

 

[Lan-Lord]

Gone Huntin', it's always good to hear praise about an operation from somone local.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (GoneHuntin @ Mar 31 2006, 11:14 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

... i will say they are covered up with hogs from what they have told us and i know we have trapped a good many over the last year or so as well. they are moving out of the brush and into the farmers fields around there which is not making the farmers happy at all. ...[/b]

As the saying goes, "There are 2 kinds of land owners in Texas, those who have hogs, and those who will ...".

 

[GoneHuntin]

well lanlord you are right on about the hogs. I had never seen any hogs or sign on my 25 acres up until a couple of months back and suddenly there they are. I am not sure people really know how destructive they can be until you see what a group of them can do to a coastal or oat field. We were finishing up some cleanup around deer camp a couple of weeks ago and had a group of about 20 go by in front of us on in the lights on the way home. I like giving good feedback to a local ranch. The new hunting manager has made a lot of difference there on relations. I would like to see the age class on the whitetails go up another year or so, but things are getting better so hopefully it will continue. We see a lot of 3.5 year olds and some 4.5 year olds. I am hoping things will continue to improve and move that number up to seeing some 5.5 - 7.5 year olds. The area really has some pretty good genetics for central texas.

duke - glad you enjoyed texas. I have to say I am very lucky getting to hunt in this area and to have my own place there as well. We don't do much turkey hunting although probably should as our lease goes almost to the creek in one place.